How to Gain People, Retain People,
and Perfect People
A Foreword
For over three years we have been studying the way for the church to gain the increase and have seen that door-knocking gains people, the home meetings keep people, the group meetings join people together, and the district meetings bring people into the church. The principle is the same with the students’ work. We need to visit people and gain people directly on the campuses. Then we need to keep them by the principle of the home meetings. Although the students do not have homes, we must find a way, based on this principle, to keep them. Then we need to use the group meetings to join them with others. Finally, we can use the district meetings to bring them into the church. While the work of gaining people is done on the campuses, we still need to bring the new believers to attend the district meetings on the Lord’s Day so that they can taste the church life and have some knowledge and feeling for the church. Whether it is the campus work or any other work, we may have all kinds of activities during the week, but we must bring the new ones to the church meetings on the Lord’s Day. I am presenting some principles, but there is still the need for the elders to study concerning the details. If we are able to practice these points well, we will succeed. (Crucial Words of Leading in the Lord’s Recovery, Book 2: Leading the Saints to Practice the New Way Ordained by the Lord, ch. 13)
I. How to gain people:
A. The service that God ordains for us in His New Testament economy is first to “Go therefore and disciple all the nations” (Matt. 28:19). The meaning of the word “go” is very extensive. When you go, surely you have to visit people. Preaching the gospel by knocking on the door from house to house, directly visiting people in campus and contacting people through internet are all approaches to “go”.
B. Children:
1. Every children’s home meeting should frequently preach the gospel and invite their relatives and the children of their neighbors. Even though some parents will not come, they will allow their children to come. We believe that many people will be brought in through the children’s gospel work. The children’s meetings will open up a way to gain people, especially the parents of the other children. We should not limit our work to the children of the saints who are in our meetings; we also need to invite the children of our neighbors and friends. Furthermore, we hope that every home will be open for the gospel. (Raising Up The Next Generation For The Church Life, part 4, ch. 11)
We need to recover the frame of the gospel and develop the habit to contact people. Through children we can contact people and attract more children to come to the church. When we contact people, only by giving up the rules and manner and having the real burden toward people can we open man’s heart. (Doing into home, Bringing into groups, the whole district doing)
2. Testimonies of salvation of children:
a. Children’s Meeting for Gospel Harvest in the Church of Surabaya, Indonesia
c. The Children as the Great Source of Gospel
d. By the Practice of the Children Group we can invite people and gain people
C. Young People
1. Now we come to the matter of gaining the young people. Every church must go to the young people. In any field the future is with the young people. If an industry or a school does not gain young people, that industry or school has no future. This generation is the generation of the young people. However, this does not mean that we do not appreciate the older ones. (The Spirit and the Body of Christ, ch. 11)
I realize that more and more the going on of the Lord in His recovery will be with the young people. No doubt the spread of the recovery in this country and elsewhere will be mainly with them. (Life-study of Ephesians, msg. 70)
2. Testimonies of salvation:
a. Testimony of the Gospel Friends at the Young People’s Group in the Church of Tainan
b. Gospel Meeting for the young people in the church of Kaohsiung
D. Campus
1. If we have a burden for preaching the gospel, we must take care of three things. First, we have to pray; second, we have to speak the word; and third, we have to use our homes. We should be aggressive and active in the Spirit for the spread of the gospel. We can fill each city with our gospel tracts and speaking. We can also fill our homes up with young people. We do not need any gimmicks, but we must have two basic things—prayer and the word—with the additional help of our homes. We must follow the early apostles and disciples by taking the way of prayer, the word, and the homes for the preaching of the gospel. (Preaching the Gospel on the College Campuses, ch. 2)
2. Testimonies of salvation:
a. Gospel move in North Sri Lanka
b. Preaching the Gospel by vital Group in UCLA, Effective!
c. Coming to India to strengthen the Gospel preaching in campus and the new city
d. Letting the spirit of gospel burning the churches in Cambodia
e. The report of the salvation in propagation in Taipei University of Technology
f. Campus Propagation Report in Jaffna, Sri Lanka
E. Young working saints
1. We must also see that all the persons who were called by God to carry out His up-to-date move were young men. This does not mean that God would not use an older person or that God does not love the older ones. But the Scriptures reveal that all the persons who were called by God were young ones.
God calls young people to carry out His move because, generally speaking, young people are not set, settled, or occupied. God would not call those who are set, settled, and occupied because whenever He calls a person that means He has something new to do. He calls someone because He has a desire to turn the age, to do something new and revolutionary.
This is because every piece of God’s work is something new. God is always going on, so He always needs a new start with a new nature in a new way and for a new age. Man is so central in God’s plan, yet man must be used by God while he is still young. (A Young Man in God’s Plan, ch. 1)
2. Testimonies of salvation:
a. Gospel propagation for two weeks in Gampaha, Sri Lanka
b. This year’s Gospel move in India——more busy than ever and blessed by God
d. The doctor and nurse Group——preaching the gospel in one accord
e. Meeting Jesus through the Internet——mainly to the young working saints
f. Testimony of Salvation, vital group steadfastly increase
F. Community
1. We must practice to go out once or twice a week for the gospel. Even if we do not know how to do it, we should simply do it. We may never have been trained to knock on doors, but we should not care about this. After going out for about one month, we will feel that it is easy. When we see the Lord, we will not be able to excuse ourselves by saying that the new way was too hard. We need to practice. (The Practice Of The Group Meetings, ch. 8)
2. Testimonies of salvation:
a. Gospel move for one week in Lahore——Becoming the branches of bearing fruits
b. Community Gospel in Penh, Cambodia
c. 19 baptisms in a day in Kongkap village cambodia
d. Propagation Report in Pakse (Laos)
e. Knocking on the Community around the saints to find out the son of Peace
